Is Jesus really the center of our faith?

Last week I posted some early Anabaptist writings that call us to see Jesus as the center of our faith.

Lots of folks in nearly all Christian traditions would agree with this. But perhaps the quotes I offered didn’t “separate joints from marrow” sharply enough. So here’s an example of how Anabaptists would live out this truth.

That not every Christian agrees with this is illustrated by my friend Nelson’s story of his encounter with a man wearing this Burger King knock-off T-shirt to the right. He posed the following dilemma, “if the President of the United States said you should put on a uniform and kill, and Christ said you should love your enemies, whom would you obey?” The man, citing Romans 13, said he would kill. Nelson replied, “So in the hard circumstances of conflict, Christ is not really king, the president is.” The man said that Christ is indeed king, but that what really matters is that we know him. Nelson suggested to him “there were many people who knew Jesus, but that did not bring them into the kingdom. Jesus blessed those who not only hear the word but obey it (Luke 11:28).”

Nelson knew that the early pre-Christendom church forbid Christian soldiers to kill, going so far as to withhold baptism from people who joined the military after making a confession of faith.

Welcoming immigrants with or without documents, working to stop the cycle of violence that is the death penalty in Texas. supporting #HERO (Houston Equal Rights Ordinance) because it defends those who most need it, seeing the connection between restorative justice in Houston and our violent empire abroad….

These are all examples of how I personally place Jesus at the center of my faithful living, not just at the center of my atonement.

For Anabaptists and Mennonites, having a Christo-centric faith is simple: we are faithful to the life and teachings of Jesus above Paul or Caesar or anyone else.